Party Dress

One of the few things I have managed to achieve in the last month was making a dress for Alex to wear to her Great-Gran's 90th birthday party.  I believe me actually finishing this project had something to do with having to work to a deadline and the fact that Alex had nothing else nice enough to wear to such an occasion!

I used Burda 9712, which I bought and downloaded for $4 US from here.  The printing and putting together of the pattern was tedious, but if you can get patterns on special they're much cheaper than buying retail.

With the cats helping, I cut the pattern to size 18 months - except for the length, with I cut to the 12 month size.  For my 10 month old baby.  It fit perfectly around the yoke, but should have plenty of room for her to hopefully wear during summer.

The yoke is all double-sided, with fiddly bias edging around the bottom of the arm holes.

Annoyingly (typically?), the back yoke and gathering came out much better than the front.

So much topstitching!

And here is madam modelling it at the party.  After several hours of cuddles from random old ladies she was a bit frazzled, but that wasn't anything a quick cat-nap on mum's lap couldn't fix.

I didn't get any decent shots of her whole outfit on the day, so tried again tonight but she wouldn't cooperate sitting up...  

She has inherited a hatred of all things hat, bib and sock from her father, so the little Mary Jane shoes that Mum crocheted for her don't get to stay on long.

Not bad for the first item of clothing I've made in 10 (?!) years.  Was quite a nice change from rat hammocks, pram pimping and soft toys!